Texas Death Penalty

James Broadnax's cousin has confessed to shooting and killing Christian music producers in Garland in 2008. Broadnax faces execution April 30 for the crime.

Cedric Ricks, who was found guilty in 2014 of the double murder in North Texas, would be the second inmate the state has executed in 2026 barring a court stay.

James Broadnax, who was 19 when he shot and killed two Dallas County Christian music producers in 2008, has filed last minute appeals ahead of his scheduled April 30 execution for the Garland murders.

The Dallas County District Attorney's Office and Dallas County Commissioners Court are expected to pass a resolution declaring that Tommy Lee Walker, 19, was wrongfully convicted of rape and murder in 1954.

Texas also saw counties set the fewest new execution dates in at least three decades, according to an annual report by the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. Harris County was an outlier in that trend.

The same day the Court of Criminal Appeals stopped Robert Roberson’s execution to consider the use of “junk science” in his conviction, the state’s highest criminal court denied a Dallas County man’s challenge to the use of what his attorneys say is flawed eyewitness testimony in his case.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has blocked the execution of Robert Roberson a week before it was scheduled to occur.

The case is attracting attention from across the nation, even among supporters of capital punishment, who are calling for a halt to Roberson's execution.

The latest calls to stave off the politically charged execution come after a summer where GOP leaders asked the state courts to kick Democrats out of office and throw Beto O’Rourke in jail.

Roberson, convicted of capital murder in 2003 for the death of his 2-year-old daughter, will continue to push for a new trial. He has maintained his innocence.

After a roughly 20-minute hearing, Judge Austin Reeve Jackson rejected arguments by Roberson's attorney that his execution should be further delayed because of a pending appeal to the state's highest criminal court.

A court hearing on Wednesday will determine whether to proceed with Paxton’s request.